vancouver I The first big-box store embedded in a downtown
residential tower complex opened in Vancouver Friday to big crowds
and enthusiastic reviews from shoppers.

vancouver I The first big-box store embedded in a downtown residential tower complex opened in Vancouver Friday to big crowds and enthusiastic reviews from shoppers.

"It's just thrilling. And I love the light. It's easier to see stuff here," said Dawn Knight, a post-production film worker who was shopping with friend Melissa Ruffle, a film accountant, at the city's newest Costco.

The two had one cart piled high with packages of green beans and the store's trademark Ling Ling chicken potstickers, among other things, as they patrolled the aisles of the high-ceilinged and brightly lit warehouse space.

Around them, throngs of people were nibbling on free samples of everything from chocolates to butter chicken to croissants.

The new store is a feat of engineering and an unusual mix of uses. It is built in a hole bordered by GM Place, the Georgia viaduct and the escarpment on the eastern end of Vancouver's downtown. The 127,000-square-foot store, built by Concord Pacific, has two floors of parking below it, two floors of parking above it, and then, above that, another four towers of residential condos with 900 units.

As pedestrians and cars streamed into the warehouse store below, construction crews were still working on the sold-out condo project due to be finished and occupied in mid-2007.

It's the most urban Costco in North America, said Robin Ross, the chain's regional marketing manager for Western Canada. Only San Francisco has an equally downtown location, but it is located in a commercial area, not a residential tower.

To appeal to what is expected to be a slightly higher proportion of downtown shoppers, the store stocks a bigger variety of home-ready meals -- chicken parmigiana, prawns and pasta, souvlaki, lasagna, and the like -- electronics and leather goods, said Ross.

But other than that, it looks and feels like a regular Costco. While many might imagine that people living in downtown apartment wouldn't have room for a Costco-sized box of Cheerios or a 48-pack of toilet paper, that didn't appear to be the sentiment of the thousands who thronged to the store.

Moyez Bhattia, a 37-year-old West End resident, said he buys in bulk and then splits some of that with his mother or sister.

Like many, he was thrilled with the new convenience of the store and found the access -- right off Expo Boulevard -- and parking easy.

Joanne Mah, an adjunct professor in medicine at the University of B.C. who was shopping with her son, Ryan, a chef, also found the location and parking far more convenient than the suburban stores she usually goes to.

The lot is covered, which makes it more pleasant on a rainy day than an outdoor lot. Mah said the location also makes it exceptionally easy for her to do her regular stop in next-door Chinatown.

The 700 parking spots will cost $2 for two hours, but in an effort to keep out downtown office workers, the system requires parkers to return to the lot every two hours.

Concord Pacific has also incorporated an elevator and stairway that connect the store to the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain station above it.

The project, unlike the Wal-Mart proposed for Southeast Marine Drive, had no public opposition. Former city councillor Anne Roberts, who has worked on anti-Wal-Mart campaigns, said at the time that Costco made sense because it was in a downtown location, close to transportation.

Costco has, in general, provoked far less community opposition throughout North America than Wal-Marts have.

Unlike Wal-Mart, it has received public accolades for paying its employees well and providing good health benefits.

The chain started in 1983 in Seattle. The first B.C. store opened in Burnaby in 1985.

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